Tommy's A-series Misery - Poland or Bust - The final push of the walking wounded

[hairnet]

polish donut

or kotlet

stat

[Tommyboy12]

Hello from IMM Poland 2026! Bit of a queue to get in...

[Matty]

You going straight in and buying all the exhaust hangers Tom? 🤣

[Tommyboy12]

44 minutes ago, Matty said:

You going straight in and buying all the exhaust hangers Tom? 🤣

Absolutely!

Now I've set up camp I'm off to buy things! 😅

 

[N Dentressangle]

You got those enormous tents in it? 🤣

Brilliant work. Mine now sadly looks like this:

Maybe next year, Rodney

[Matty]

3 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

You got those enormous tents in it? 🤣

Brilliant work. Mine now sadly looks like this:

Maybe next year, Rodney

Progress is progress bud. It was upside down a page back 🤣

[N Dentressangle]

19 minutes ago, Matty said:

Progress is progress bud. It was upside down a page back 🤣

Very true.

I'm aiming for this:

https://www.facebook.com/events/praia-de-mira-portugal/international-mini-meeting-2027/759346510316570/

[Tommyboy12]

IMM Portugal would be great. It's very reasonably priced too. Less than €90 for two free meals, a t-shirt, four days of camping plus all the entertainment. I don't think I'll be going as I have other plans for next year but word on the grape vine at this event is that 2028 is in the Netherlands which I will definitely do!

Today has been a bit of a mixed day. I spent over two hours trying to diagnose my overheating issue and pinned it down to a pressuring cooling system, which I knew already.

Unfortunately that meant off with her head!

Working in 30C heat has only been helped by the tarp I had set up over the tent.

The old gasket was blowing between 1&2 and 2&3. So the head is likely warped. However I can't fix that here. So on with a new gasket.

And all back together.

There's no pressurising now. I'm going to take it easy on the drive home tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully it holds but if not it's got to come off again when I get home.

[Tommyboy12]

Despite the headgasket change I saw some cool cars last night and today at the show. My favourite thing about IMM is all the Minis from other countries. It's nice to see something different from the same cars at all the UK shows.

The black Moke towing the trailer is actually towing a hearse! Apparently in Germany the smaller villages used to have a hearse trailer instead of an actual hearse. He was sleeping in it of course.

[Tommyboy12]

Tomorrow is the start of our return journey. A couple of stops we plan to make en-route including the POW museum at Stalag III (from The Great Escape) and they were also going to stop by a bucket wheel excavator that's been abandoned in the German countryside, Bagger 1473. It's going to be a long trip tomorrow so I'm glad I've spent the time doing the work on the car today.

 

[hairnet]

os hotel hasbergen?

[N Dentressangle]

Looks amazing - glad you're (mostly) enjoying it. Bugger about the HGF, especially as that's not really the A series' party trick.

I wonder if a doubled up HG might help mitigate the warp, should it be needed? Hope you don't need the phrase 'meine Zylinderkopfdichtung ist am Arsch' at any point in the next few days... 😉

[hairnet]

if you can do that 1000 miles from home in a field the words ADAC hilfe wont be needed

 

[Matty]

2 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

Very true.

I'm aiming for this:

https://www.facebook.com/events/praia-de-mira-portugal/international-mini-meeting-2027/759346510316570/

Oh bloody go for it. I live in perpetual awe of madheads like @Tommyboy12 who'll take an owd thing amd drive half way accross the world. Guess im scared of failing to complete. Getting that Mini done and doing that would defo win my eternal respect 😁

[Tommyboy12]

3 hours ago, hairnet said:

os hotel hasbergen?

Might be 😅

[hairnet]

49 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

Might be 😅

remote access watch that also dont use any crockery on the induction hob lmao

 

[Tommyboy12]

We set off a couple of hours ago and have made it to our first stop which is Stalag III. The POW camp 'The Great Escape' was based on. Headgasket seems to be holding firm and the temps are more manageable. No pressurising of the cooling system either!

 

[Tommyboy12]

Tunnel Harry. It's eerie how quiet and peaceful it is considering how horrendous this place was.

 

[N Dentressangle]

Looks really interesting.

Good to see the car's holding up.

[Tommyboy12]

This is a problem... I have no spare and tape didn't hold🥲

[Tommyboy12]

We're waiting on breakdown assistance. They're hoping to fix on the roadside but a recovery back to the ferry is a possibility. I don't have anything to repair or cut the hose. I didn't bring a knife 🥲 In the meantime we were a stones throw away from our next stop which was the bucket wheel excavator monolith. We walked to the observation deck to take a look at it. It's massive.

 

[High Jetter]

5 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

I didn't bring a knife

No Stanley or any blades with you? You could probably work that cut round with a pair of grips - though the hose will probably be too short then I guess.  A right shame if you can't get driving again because of that.

[Tommyboy12]

We got very lucky and a lovely young lady stopped in an old mk3 Fiesta. She rang her boyfriend who came and helped us push the car to a back yard mechanic in the village and we cobbled together a new radiator hose from various bits of VW coolant pipes so we're back on the road! Still 4 hours to Osnabruck and we now have no heater as we had to bypass it 🥲

[mk2_craig]

22 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

no heater

You will probably manage without. 

[Matty]

32 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

We got very lucky and a lovely young lady stopped in an old mk3 Fiesta. She rang her boyfriend who came and helped us push the car to a back yard mechanic in the village and we cobbled together a new radiator hose from various bits of VW coolant pipes so we're back on the road! Still 4 hours to Osnabruck and we now have no heater as we had to bypass it 🥲

Yaassss 💪

[tooSavvy]

Was following a 'MORRIS COOPER' along Whitley bay seafront...

Twin tanks + *marginally overcooked on the track/tyres 🙄.

Lovely smell of juice & hot oil.

Mmmmmm...

🚙💨

[Matty]

21 minutes ago, tooSavvy said:

Was following a 'MORRIS COOPER' along Whitley bay seafront...

Twin tanks + *marginally overcooked on the track/tyres 🙄.

Lovely smell of juice & hot oil.

Mmmmmm...

🚙💨

Cant beat an old car. I know, i keep trying 🤣

[Tommyboy12]

It's an hour and a half to our hotel but we're still going! Having to top up the coolant every 80 miles but I'll take the breaks

[Tommyboy12]

Good morning from Osnabruck! We made it into our hotel at 1am. I immediately went to bed and slept like the dead for 7 hours.

The car made it without much complaint although were burning through coolant again. Topping up fluids and making the final 3 hour push to the ferry this morning. We have 6 hours until the ferry leaves. I'm not taking it to chance 😂

The repair seems to be holding up which is the main thing

[Tommyboy12]

We are back on the boat!